


Never Leave You

by AlwaysRain



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Family Loss, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, I'm Sorry, Love Confessions, M/M, like angst galore, like this is a fic of pain, major major major character death, you can blame my friend for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 10:30:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10011248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysRain/pseuds/AlwaysRain
Summary: The final battle against Lotor goes wrong. Horribly wrong. Matt realizes it's his last chance to tell Shiro how he feels, and great sadness ensues.AKA: my best friend is an asshole and she loves to hurt me so I got her back by taking her prompt and making it even more painful.





	

The ground rumbles with the aftershocks of yet another explosion. Shiro grunts and ducks his head to avoid the worst of the shrapnel that showers down around him. When the shaking stops, he dares a glance over his shoulder. He’s made it further from the Black Lion than he thought- she’s lying motionless at the bottom of the crater, crushed beneath the remains of one of the castle towers. Regret courses through Shiro’s veins. He knows the Lion will recover, but she’s weak right now and he has no way to help her. He can feel their bond flickering. She seems to be crying out to him for help but at the same time pushing him to safety.

Something collapses to Shiro’s right and the shockwaves force him to his knees. Overhead, the Red Lion streaks past as a blur. Keith is obviously piloting her towards Lance and Blue, who are spiraling down from the sky with no control. Shiro stumbles back up and continues his perilous journey to the edge of the crater. The sound of clanking metal draws his attention. He barely has time to dodge a blast from the Galra drone’s gun before another drone appears behind him and roughly grabs his arm. There is a moment in which he considers letting himself be captured, and then he hears a scream.

He doesn’t think twice this time, he just activates his cyberarm and blindly attacks. Drones gone, Shiro sprints toward the source of the scream, his heartbeat roaring in his ears. Hoarse and pained though it was, he knows that voice, knows that terror. If he just moves quicker, if he just jumps higher, if he just fights harder… maybe he can save his friend. Shiro allows himself a sliver of hope when the scream comes again, this time just beyond the wreckage of a Galra fighter ship.

Shiro whips around the flaming heap of metal. He barely pauses to assess the situation before he’s letting out a wild yell and slashing his way through the crowd of Galra drones and soldiers gathered around where Matt is savagely wrestling with a soldier nearly twice his size. 

“No!”

The yell startles Shiro. He turns in time to see Matt beat his way out of the soldier’s grasp and dive at the drone that has just pulled the trigger. White hot, searing pain blossoms in Shiro’s chest. The force of the blast knocks him backwards. He barely has time to stagger before he’s falling. Hitting the ground knocks the air from his lungs, and the fire claws through his veins. There comes the sound of a sickening crunch, and Shiro fears the worst.

“Shiro? Shiro!”

Matt’s face, bruised and bloody, appears in Shiro’s field of vision. His hazel eyes are watering. One has been blackened. Shiro attempts a frown and finds himself gasping as the wound on his chest erupts from burning to stabbing and finally starts gushing blood. Matt swears softly and immediately presses his hands into the mess. Shiro winces.

“Matt. Go. You gotta go, you’re not going to make it if you stay here.”

“I’m not going to leave you, Takashi.”

Shiro bites down hard on his tongue as Matt uses one bloodied hand to maneuver Shiro into an upright position and pull him onto his lap. He’s not sure if the hole in his chest or Matt’s words hurt him more.

The sky is red, now. Filled with smoke and fire and clouds the color of blood. It’s hard not to find that ironic. “I’m sorry about your father,” Shiro mumbles, trying to ignore the way he’s started to shake. 

Matt yelps. Shiro thinks he’s trying to laugh, but the tears spilling over are stopping it. Matt presses his hand harder into Shiro’s wound. No amount of pressure will stop the bleeding. Maybe it’s worth a try, though.

“That’s not your fault,” Matt whispers. “You couldn’t have known he was already gone when Lotor sent that video.”

“But if we had come sooner, maybe we could-”

“No. We couldn’t have. He’s gone, he won’t come back. We can think about that later, okay? Right now we need to get you out of here.”

Shiro shakes his head weakly. He can feel his weakness spreading with each beat of his heart. He’s not going to make it out. This, the fight against Lotor that’s gone horribly wrong, this is his last stand. He won’t let it be Matt’s, too. He realizes that Matt’s chest is heaving with the effort of breathing.

“You’re hurt,” he says simply, the cold in his fingertips distracting him from what he wants to say.

Matt nods, his lips trembling. “They- they broke my ankle so I couldn’t run. One of them used a broken drone to hit me with.”

“How bad is it?”

“It’s not important.”

Shiro raises a shaky hand to Matt’s cheek, his arm aching with the effort. “You have to go, Matt. Coran can get you in a cryopod, he can help you.”

Matt shakes his head hard, unable to contain a whimper at the jolt of pain it sends through him. “No. I’m not going to leave you.”

“I won’t make it. You need to go.”

“My lung is punctured, Shiro. I can feel it with every breath I take. Cryopods can’t help me.”

“Matt, go.”

“Please… please don’t ask me to leave you. I- I can’t. I won’t.”

Shiro manages to lock his gaze with Matt’s. He can see the determination there, see that Matt will stay by his side until forced away. It takes half his strength, but he manages to smack the button to turn on his com link. It crackles and pops loud with static, then roughly tunes in to the other paladins. Shiro coughs, still staring into Matt’s eyes.

“Pidge,” he croaks, and Matt whimpers feebly. “Pidge, can you hear me?”

_“Shiro? Shiro, where are you? What happened to the Black Lion?”_

The sound cuts out, and Shiro resorts to hoping Pidge can still hear him talking. “We went down. I need you to follow my tracker. You need to come get Matt. Please.”

“Don’t make me go,” Matt wheezes, his breath coming faster and harsher now. “Please. I don’t want to leave you behind.”

“You have to. Matt, you might be able to live if you leave me.”

“I don’t want to live without you.”

The words come in a jumbled mess amongst tears and choking breaths. Shiro’s world slows down to the waning beat of his heart, the weight of Matt’s hand holding the blood from spilling out of his chest, the harsh rasp of forced breaths, the stained tear tracks on Matt’s grimy face. He feels his face twist into a pained expression.

“No…”

Matt’s face crumples at the whisper. “I’m sorry, Takashi, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to, I swear, I didn’t mean to fall in love, but I- I can’t live without you. I can’t leave you here. I should have told you but I d-didn’t know how a-and now it’s too late, and-”

“How long?”

Matt’s breath hitches. Shiro isn’t sure if it’s due to shock or a deflating lung. He watches as Matt’s lips start to tremble. “Since K-Kerberos. You were m-my best frie-end, and I- I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry…”

Shiro wants to pull Matt close to him, but he can’t move his arms anymore. He feels his own eyes start to burn with tears and he wills the darkness to stay away for just a few more moments. “I’ve loved you since the moment I met you, Matt. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Matt hiccups, chokes, and pants a snot-filled laugh. “What g-great timing we have,” he mutters, his arm tightening around Shiro’s shoulders. Shiro smiles. It takes effort- his muscles don’t want to obey anymore.

“Kiss me?”

Shaking, Matt nods with a watery grin. As he leans down, his breath catches in his throat. His tears drip onto Shiro’s cheeks. Shiro’s blood gushes from between his fingers. The moment is bittersweet when their lips meet. They’re both dying, and they know it, but this will be the last thing they know. The kiss is hungry, but gentle. Neither have the strength to search for the touch they’ve starved themselves of. 

Matt feels when Shiro leaves him. The blood stops pulsing and starts pooling. The trembling fades into stillness. The fingers clenched on his arm loosen and fall away. The warm sense of life dwindles and disappears, replaced by a bone-deep cold. Matt swallows a sob and presses his forehead against Shiro’s, agony greater than any physical pain blinding his senses. The effort of breathing is overwhelmingly difficult. _I won’t leave you_ , he thinks. _I’ll never leave you_. The feeling of loss is so profound, he hardly notices as his strength diminishes. His spirit leaves him with a rattling gasp against Shiro’s lips.

A cloud of dust engulfs the two of them, slumped limply in a lifeless heap in the middle of a burning battlefield. The Green Lion thrashes her tail as she opens her mouth to allow Pidge out. The small paladin lands lightly, guided to the ground by the jets on her back. The dust is clearing just as she’s straightening up, and then she sees them. An awful weight settles in her gut like a ton of bricks. She forces herself to move forward. Nothing stirs around her. The very air seems to solidify and lump in her throat.

“Matt? Shiro?”

The lack of a response is the only answer she needs, but she can’t stop herself. She moves closer, and closer, until she is beside them, and her legs give out. She crawls forward, fighting to keep the blinding hot tears from her eyes.

“It’s okay, guys. I- I won’t leave you.”


End file.
